1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a process for producing a road covering of asphalt, in particular an asphalt surface or an asphalt road, with a road paver, with material for producing the road covering being supplied to the road paver and said material being homogenized. The invention additionally relates to a road paver, with an undercarriage, with at least one hopper, in particular at least one chamber for holding preferably at least essentially continuously supplied material, with a screed for producing a road covering, and with a conveyor for conveying material to the screed, and with a device for homogenizing the material. The invention also relates to a feeder, with an undercarriage, with at least one hopper for holding material, with a conveyor for preferably continuously supplying material from the hopper to a road paver for laying a road covering, in particular an asphalt layer or asphalt covering. The invention moreover relates to a paving train with at least one road paver, and with at least one feeder, it being possible to produce at least one road covering by the road paver, and for material for producing the surface covering to be supplied by the feeder to the road paver, preferably continuously.
2. Prior Art
Surface coverings or road structures, which can, for example, be walked or driven over, such as in particular road surfacing or road surface layers and in particular roadway pavings, are usually produced from materials such as, preferably, asphalt. So-called road pavers are generally used to produce the layer of material that is applied on top of a subsurface.
The material is usually at least essentially continuously supplied to the road paver in order to ensure an even application of material that is as uninterrupted as possible. As a buffer for short interruptions in delivery, the road paver generally has a container or hopper that is also known as a material bunker. The material is usually loaded into this hopper from a so-called feeder with the aid of a conveyor. The road paver itself usually also has a conveyor, preferably a scraper conveyor, which serves to remove material from the hopper and supply it to a screed. The screed distributes and compacts the material evenly on the subsurface. The road paver can be designed as a single-layer or multi-layer paver.
Surface coverings made from rolled asphalt are laid when they are hot. In order to ensure optimum durability of the surface covering produced, it is necessary, on the one hand, to prevent properties of the material from deviating from specifications, such as an optimum working temperature, and differences in the temperature or composition. Mixing devices are usually used for this purpose, which mix a portion of the material to provide it with uniform properties, in particular a uniform temperature, i.e. the material is homogenized before it is laid with the paver. The continuous mixing of the road-surface material entails a high level of energy consumption and causes considerable wear on the required mixing devices.